Santa Barbara Unified School Board hopefuls spar over Hilda Maldonado, budgets and test scores in first debate

The crowd inside the Keller Williams office sneered at Santa Barbara Unified School Board incumbent Rose Muñoz when she decided to recuse herself from a question about renewing Superintendent Hilda Maldonado’s contract.

“As an incumbent, I don’t know that I could answer that,” Muñoz said.

“Shouldn’t you know by now?” said one attendee.

The question, posed by moderator Jerry Roberts at the first candidate debate for the Santa Barbara Unified school board, asked candidates to raise their hand if they would renew Maldonado’s contract.

No one raised their hand.

The characteristics of what makes a good superintendent took center stage Thursday night along with what to do about the district’s state test scores, $10 million deficit and declining enrollment at a school board forum hosted by the Santa Barbara Reading Coalition at the Keller Williams office.

Around 40 people attended, including former Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum and former Santa Barbara Unified School Board Member Ed Heron.

The forum was taped by TV Santa Barbara and will be uploaded on its YouTube channel for viewing.

Five candidates are battling for two open school board seats currently held by Muñoz and Gabe Escobedo, who after serving one term on the school board is now running for Santa Barbara City Council.

Mark Philibosian, a financial analyst, debated activist Jacqueline Karlsen, who are both vying for Escobedo’s seat in trustee area one.

Karlsen, under the name Jacqueline Inda, previously ran for school board in 2008 and lost.  

Trustee area four candidates Muñoz, a two-term board member, and Valerie Amparan, the nonprofit CEO hoping to unseat Munoz, also faced-off during the debate.

The debate began with candidates saying what they’re determined to accomplish on the board.

Karlsen said she wants to create ad-hoc committees to support children impacted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and “figure out the budget” to determine how dropping enrollment impacts facilities.

Philibosian said he’d set long-term goals to address enrollment, budget and improving test scores with targeted intervention.

Amparan said she’d focus on balancing the budget, creating a reserve policy and working with teachers and nonprofits to improve test scores.

Similarly, Munoz said she wants to bring up reading and math scores and fix the budget deficit.

Amparan questioned Muñoz on how she feels she’s done as a board member in holding the superintendent accountable for the budget deficit.

Muñoz said she admitted she was not interested in the district creating a finance committee and that she “could’ve done more” in addressing the budget deficit.

Amparan doubled-down.

“You could have done more,” Amparan said. “I think the school board…could have done more, and I think that we now find ourselves in a very challenging position.”

Muñoz, questioned Amparan’s ability to connect with certain populations of the district such as its Latino students.

“I think what you’re getting at Rose is, how do I connect with the people who you might not think that I connect with,” Amparan said.

Amparan responded, at one point in Spanish, saying she is Latina.

She also said she’s worked hard to “drive something fancy,” lives in Old Town Goleta and works with domestic violence survivors daily at her nonprofit, 4 Kids 2 Kids.

Amparan claimed that Muñoz had declined to meet with her previously.  

Candidate newcomers Amparan and Philibosian both come from predominantly corporate and finance backgrounds, while Karlsen and Muñoz have worked mostly in advocacy and social services.

Amparan and Philibosian separately said their experience managing budgets and serving on boards would bring needed experience to the school board, both stressing the need for the district to set targets for its reading and math scores.

“Without setting those measure goals for our own district, it’s really hard to understand the progress,” Philibosian said.

Amparan said measurable goals are nowhere to be found.

“On our website, if you go to Santa Barbara Unified, it says our goals are: ‘reading. Math,’” Amparan said. “There’s not a number or percentage that’s tied to that.”

Karlsen said that the district should collaborate with its feeder schools to address test scores.

Though candidates generally agreed on the major problems facing the school district, they differed in explaining why their qualifications make them unique to solve them.

Amparan said she has years of experience managing nonprofits and working with stakeholders in sales.

Karlsen’s unique qualification, she said, is that she comes from different backgrounds.

Muñoz said she collaborated with the school district as a commissioner with the City Housing Authority to develop housing for teachers and other district employees.

And Philibosian said his experience in finance would help the board untangle complicated budget issues.

“When we think about rounding out what the board needs…and the challenges that we’re going to be facing in the coming years, I think I bring a lot of experience that is really important as we make these long-term decisions,” Philibosian said.

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